Caitlin: Village life, la fin

At the end of our 5th week in Fatick, I was exhausted. I had been having some petits problèmes with my family and my internship, and Sophie and I had done an intense run with some four Senegalese garçons that left us pretty sore for the next few days (and me with a fresh cut on my knee! Note: roads in Fatick are not lighted at night). 

So, naturally, I wanted to sleep in Saturday morning. Unfortunately, masonry workers outside my room at 7am made that impossible, so Sophie and I made plans to bike to a village called Diakhao. I figured it would be like every other village I’ve seen and we would just look around for a little bit and bike back. The 18km ride there was beautiful! Lots of luscious greenery, towering baobabs, and petit villages. It’s actually a protected forest and it wasn’t nearly as barren or windy as the ride to Foundiougne. 

When we finally arrived at Diakhao, we had no idea what to do, but Sophie’s host father had suggested we visit a house in the center of town. It turned out to be the former royal court of Fatick. The family was incredibly nice–they gave us a tour of the court and then insisted that we stay and lunch with them. We ended up spending the entire afternoon lounging on cushions with the “royal family” under a tree in the yard, eating cëb u jën and drinking ataaya. Their niece, Mbacke, showed how to properly wash clothes by hand (could have used that lesson four months ago) and we had some really interesting discussions about polygamy. 

They really were too nice. So nice, in fact, that when a family friend around our age stopped by and asked me to marry him within 5 minutes of meeting me, I considered for a second that I might actually be able to live my life there happily. Just a second, though.

We finally tore ourselves away before it got too dark and bike back to Fatick, where we rejoined our families. It was just me and Fatou eating in the kitchen for dinner, and we talked for several hours about all kinds of personal history. I felt like I was finally getting to know her as a person, and we were becoming pretty close friends. In the late evening, Sophie and I met up and went to Talla’s for ataaya. We ended up talking on the roof until about 2am. It had been a while since I’d seen shooting stars…

Our last week in Fatick seemed to fly by. We ran again with our Senegalese running group (and took an impromtu dip at the beach!) and took Thursday off of work to return to Diakhao for their weekly market. It was a beautiful market, and the family welcomed us in once again. The Senegalese are extremely generous people, and pretty much everyone I came into contact with wanted to give me a going-away present. The thing is, I have NO space left in my luggage to come home! But when I told Fatou I didn’t think I could fit her beautiful booboo she wanted to give me (it looked better on here anyway!) she started to cry! I had no choice if I didn’t want to offend her. So crazy. Even Talla had his tailor make pants for me, and the guard at work made me a loofa-type thing. On my end, I left quite a hefty stack of clothes with Fatou and Adema. 

My last afternoon in Fatick I walked to the beach with Talla (It’s more peaceful that way–Senegalese boys talk to you less if you are accompanied by one already) and took my final swim in the salty estuary. I really didn’t think I would miss my family or Fatick all that much, but I guess I had grown more attached to my family than I realized, because when we sat down for dinner that night I started crying and couldn’t stop for quite some time. Then Fatou started crying too! We could barely eat. I think it was also really sad because I don’t know that I’ll ever come back to Fatick, or even Senegal, so there is a very good chance that I will never see Fatou or the rest of my family again. And she doesn’t really have access to internet. 

Sophie and I left Saturday morning, and this time the entire family (including me) was crying. Even my maman’s sister who had been staying with us and pretty much never spoke to me. Crazy! It didn’t help that for some reason I woke up with a fever and swollen abdomen Saturday morning (feeling better now after resting in Dakar, don’t worry). Needless to say, my last few hours in Fatick were pretty emotional. 

Now I’m in Dakar trying to focus on writing my final paper while catching up with friends here and checking off things on my last to do in Dakar before I leave the country. I’m excited to go home, but at the same time I’m a bit terrified. Senegal has become my life. As difficult as it is here sometimes, it’s what I know. And you know what? I also kind of love it here sometimes. What will be like to transition back into a completely different culture? A completely different life? I guess we’ll find out very soon…

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